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Whoa, some people never grow up, but it is not cute being juvenile after a certain age.

It seems that Elon personally got involved in this order. There was apparently phone conversation between Elon and Stewart.

Dear @ElonMusk: Thank you for reaching out to me. I heard from our phone conversation that you feel that my post "Dear @ElonMusk: You should be ashamed of yourself" a personal attack on you. I also hear that you are not comfortable having me own a Tesla car and have cancelled my order for a Tesla Model X.

There's also a Norwegian blacklisted. Apparently because Tesla thinks he has bought and sold too many Model S's too quickly, pointing to the clause saying they won't sell to people who they have good reason to believe is buying not to be the end user, but only to pass the car(s) on for profit.

I should add: This is one of the advantages of being production constrained

Interesting. I'd like to know if there is significantly more back story here. Reading Alsop's side it seems very odd that Tesla would choose to ban him rather than reach out to him and try to make a positive out of the situation rather than bring more bad press...they had to know he'd post about it and not just go away quietly. While a bit whiny and self-rightous, I do think the original post about the reveal event was pretty much on target, it is ridiculous to start that late and really pretty unacceptable to do without a good explanation and a sincere apology.

There was also a guy who complained on the forum about being blacklisted after he had a loud complaint accompnied with a threatened law suit. If Alsop really was blacklisted just for the blog post, that was a poor decision.

I think Elon did the right thing. One thing I've learned running a small business--90% of customers are a genuine pleasure and 10% are horrible. Get rid of the 10 and you'll have more time to focus on the 90. I don't condone them starting the MX reveal late, I think that's unprofessional. But the guy's reaction and letter was churlish. It's not a "ban", it's just someone saying "I choose not to do business with you".

If the author of the blog only wanted Elon to know how he felt, then it would have been a private letter to him, not a public blog. It was not just something he was saying directy to Elon - it was publicly chastising him. Of course he took it personally. Who wouldn't? That has nothing to do with the event starting late and other issues that have been hashed out already on this forum. He waggled his finger at Elon and then did the 'whoa, it wasn't personal!'.

People have chastised Elon (and Tesla, for that matter) much worse on this forum and not had their order canceled. People have been publicly critical of that particular event and not had their order canceled. So I wonder what actually was said on that phone conversation. There is likely more to this story.

I agree with Bonnie: it seems very likely that Alsop is not revealing everything. Given how much crap is hurled at Elon on a daily basis, I think it takes a lot to get under his skin. But Alsop appears to have accomplished that, and Alsop's hypocrisy is remarkable.

It was not just something he was saying directy to Elon - it was publicly chastising him. Of course he took it personally. Who wouldn't?

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Personal. That means directed at Elon Musk, the person. I think Alsop's complaints were clearly directed at the CEO of Tesla and MC of a botched event. Not personal. Roles that Elon Musk was playing. I saw Alsop's letter when he put it up and my reaction was "I'm sure glad I couldn't get a ticket for that." I watched the video online and thought it was a pretty weak presentation, even apart from being late. And reading the forums at the time, that seemed to be pretty much the consensus. Nothing to be proud of.

Now, like Alsop, I still think Teslas are awesome and I love my P85 and I'm thinking I might get an X. But only after I get to drive one and crawl all over it to see whether it fits my needs. I think, if things have indeed played out the way Alsop describes, that Tesla is wrong and owes him an apology. As an engineer, I'm sympathetic with Tesla being about great engineering and not putting any effort into marketing or communication with their customers. But one of the implications of that is that you take criticism gratefully, fix what's broken, and move on -- you don't retaliate just because somebody's being a bit of a jerk.

I walked in the reveal like I was the only one with an invite
I'd skipped the Carl's Jr and I really wanted more than one bite
You kept us waiting - oh, so long
The world revolves just around me
Deluding myself that I'd get a Founder
I'd get a Founder, and...

I'm so mad, you probably think that post was about you
I used your name, I'll bet you think that post was about you
Don't you? don't you?

Interesting. I'd like to know if there is significantly more back story here. Reading Alsop's side it seems very odd that Tesla would choose to ban him rather than reach out to him and try to make a positive out of the situation rather than bring more bad press...they had to know he'd post about it and not just go away quietly. While a bit whiny and self-rightous, I do think the original post about the reveal event was pretty much on target, it is ridiculous to start that late and really pretty unacceptable to do without a good explanation and a sincere apology.

Click to expand...

I would bet there is more to it as we know Tesla's typical MO is to try and fix it.

In social media circles, there is the concept of an a$$hole-with-a-blog - folks that feel self-important because they have a popular blog/instagram/twitter/youtube channel with X number of readers/followers/subscribers--his post came off as one of those "do you know who I am" posts. TBH, if it were me, and he continued the belligerent tone in person, I would bounce him too, because odds are he is going to continue to squawk about every perceived slight.

I know the mantra is that the customer is always right, but sometimes the customer is an a$$hole and when the criticism turns from your product to your people, I think the right thing to do is to stand up for yourself and your employees.

Reminds me of the D event in Hawthorne. Total madhouse. Event started very late. Then we find out the wristbands we were all given designate what group of people get to do the D test "rides" -- my color wristband (gold I think) was not picked first, and whatever color was, suddenly had a line a mile long of people waiting for D rides. It was clearly going to be many hours before we'd get rides so we gave up.

Now, did we write a whiny post on Medium? No. Was it a pain and a bit of a disappointment not to get one of those rides in a P85D? Sure. Was it the end of the world? No.

Alsop is very well known in Silicon Valley. I've bumped into him countless times going back 20 years or more. There has to be more to this story. But clearly Alsop chose poorly, in my humble opinion.

I don't like when Tesla "bans" someone or cancels their order, it's unfortunate. But there has to be more to this story than we know.